HYDERABAD: With differences between the Nara and Nandamuri families threatening to flare up into a full-fledged soap opera, it was film star N Balakrishna who stepped in and brought about peace, sources in the TDP said.
Also, indications that Chandrababu Naidu had the support of the rank and file of the TDP discouraged Nandamuri family members from stoking the fire further. “The cadres were against any divisive attempts by the Nandamuri family and questioned their locus standi in the party,” a senior leader said.
Sensing the hostility of the cadres, N Harikrishna backed off from taking on brother-in-law head on, the sources said.
For the time being, Naidu’s position is secure as the paramount leader in the TDP and he will lead the party to the next election.
Though Harikrishna follower and Vijayawada Urban TDP president Vallabhaneni Vamsi denied there was any rift, TDP leaders strongly believe that Union minister and N T Rama Rao’s daughter Daggubati Purandeswari instigated Harikrishna’s outburst.
Sources said Purandeswari entrusted the job of stoking the fire in the TDP to a former MP from Visakhapatnam.
“The former MP in fact drafted the letter which Harikrishna’s supporters released in Hyderabad with an intent to create a rift between the families,” a TDP leader said. Purandeswari’s agent called up some TDP leaders and invited them to hush-hush parleys, he alleged.
Getting wise to Purandeswari’s meddling, Naidu turned to brother-in-law Balakrishna for help.
Political observers feel that the effort to wrest the TDP for the Nandamuri family failed due to poor timing.
Elections are years away and the intra-party spat in Krishna district was too small to trigger widespread outrage in the statewide party.
“It was a storm in a tea cup,” said TDP general secretary Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary.
Another leader Varla Ramaiah, who had earlier declared he would produce evidence of Purandeswari’s role in the episode, said there was no need for it now since the trouble has subsided.